By JOHN DAHLIA
NCWV media
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — WVU Medicine and The Greenbrier, two of West Virginia’s best-known brands, have forged a unique partnership, bringing what representatives of both organizations say is “world-class health care” to Greenbrier County and the surrounding area.
WVU Medicine and WVU Hospitals President/CEO Albright Wright and The Greenbrier Clinic administrator David B. Darden released details of the new partnership Thursday while attending the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Business Summit at The Greenbrier in White Sulfur Springs.
“Having the ability to connect with the specialists at Morgantown is tremendous,” Darden told The Exponent Telegram. “We felt it was very appropriate for us to align with a renowned academic medical center, and it made sense we look at our home state.”
Wright said the partnership will bring to the community expert doctors and researchers from a nationally recognized academic medical center and medical school.
“This has always been an excellent executive health program,” he said of The Greenbrier Clinic.
Darden said The Greenbrier Clinic is the industry’s first executive health care clinic, getting its start around 1948 when its founders decided that healthy people make for healthy corporations. He said the clinic was formed with the objective of providing complete diagnostic health care within the luxurious setting of the world famous Greenbrier Resort.
“We’ve always had a very strong executive health program,” Darden said. “But when you start looking at competing programs around the country, most of them are associated with academic medical centers. It has never had a relationship with a tertiary care provider.”
WVU Medicine and WVU Hospitals is considered a tertiary care organization, specializing in health care for inpatients and on referral from primary or secondary health professionals, in a facility that has personnel and facilities for advanced medical investigation and treatment.
“WVU Medicine is in a significant growth mode, becoming a top-tier tertiary academic medical center,” Wright said.
According to both Darden and Wright, the partnership will allow physicians at The Greenbrier Clinic to refer patients to some of the top experts in specific fields for extended treatment, enhancing the service provided to the executive physical patients.
New services will also be offered on a periodic basis to the executive patients at The Greenbrier Clinic, including neurology, rheumatology, hematology/oncology and expanded gastroenterology.
In addition, The Greenbrier Clinic will convert its information system to the EPIC system, used by WVU Medicine and top academic medical centers throughout the country.
“That will allow completely seamless care,” Wright said. “So, anything ever done to a patient at WVU Medicine, at The Greenbrier, or even at other healthcare systems across the country that have EPIC; those records, physician notes, labs, images will be visible by all physicians.”
WVU Medicine will start to put subspecialists or medical experts like neurologists, cardiologist, etc. at The Greenbrier Clinic on a consistent basis despite the nearly 200-mile distance, Wright added.
“Then we can provide local care but also providing links to a higher level of care as well,” he said. “We want to use this as a showplace for a few niche technologies that are either rarely available or not often seen in a setting like this. That way folks start to come here a little more for destination care.”
WVU Medicine became the official sports medicine provider for The Greenbrier earlier this year, providing training services for events such as the Houston Texans Training Camp, The Greenbrier Classic and The Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic.
